Negros Oriental knows how to party! Find a complete list of festivals and events held annually to celebrate a bountiful island life
The Festivals of Negros Oriental, Philippines
Blessed with year-round great climate, fertile soil, rich marine life, unspoiled natural beauty and generally a happy island life, Negros Oriental in the Phiippines has so much to be thankful for.
In true Filipino tradition, there is a festival, fiesta or anniversary celebration going on in Negros Oriental every month of the year with parades, street dancing and general all-around partying.
Visitors can plan their trips around the bigger festivals held in Dumaguete City, like the Buglasan or the Sandurot, or simply check out what's happening on your visit to the Philippines.
Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental invite you to be our guest. Come party with us!
Buglasan
Festival of Festivals
The Buglasan is the biggest and most elaborate of Negros Oriental celebrations.
Just recently concluded last October 16-26, 2008 was the biggest festival of Negros Oriental Province it is usually held in the last quarter of every year, in the Dumaguete City.
The Buglasan found a new home in the Sidlakang Negros Village in 2008 and plans are already in the works for an even bigger celebration in 2009 so come visit the site again soon for updates.
While the Buglasan has street dancing competitions, parades, sports competitions and cultural presentations, one unique feature is the highly anticipated, well attended, fireworks competition (shown above), held at Rozal Boulevard in Dumaguete City popular among locals and tourists alike.
It is truly a sight to behold!
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Negros Oriental Festivals & Events
BODBOD FESTIVAL
Tanjay City (3rd week of December)
The festival gives emphasis to this native delicacy made of glutinous rice, coconut milk, sugar and salt. It features “the Biggest Bodbod“ that would weigh as much as eighty kilos and requires ten persons to prepare the delicacy, and the “Smallest Bodbod” that would come served inside a matchbox.
Bodbod making contests give the Tanjayanons the chance to show their natural expertise on the art of making the delicacy while Bodbod eating contest will give the town’s visitors the real treat of their lives when they outdo each one in consuming a winnow (nigo) of their delicacy.
BUDYAS
Tandayag, Amlan (November 29)
A ritual blessing of the fleet and fishing implements followed by a fluvial procession of lavishly-decorated boats transporting the patron’s image from the first to the second chapel of Tandayag.
GUIHULNGAN FESTIVAL
Guihulngan (May 24)
Legend has it that marauding pirates used to slaughter natives of the town and drop their corpses into the sea. When a bell was installed as warning device this, too, was taken down and flung offshore. The site where something dropped (guihulugan) forms the backdrop for spectacular revelry to highlight the town fiesta.
HUGYAWAN DALANSAYAW
Dumaguete City, (first week of December, movable)
Hugyawan means “merrymaking” and is the main concept of the celebration and the presentations of the streetdancing contingents, whose members come from all parts of the province.
The main goal of Hugyawan is to showcase the unique way of life of the inhabitants of Negros Oriental, and at the same time, capture the customary response of the Negrenses towards Nature, Fate, that God has gifted him with, thanksgiving through celebration, merrymaking and revelry.
INAGTA
Siaton (December 5)
Living cultural material. Descendants of the Negros islan's dark-skinned indigenes mime animals in ethnic movements performed in front of the patron and before houses.
KABULAKAN FESTIVAL
Dumaguete City (3rd Week of May)
The concept of the festival is to pay tribute to the month of May, with flowers as the theme. It is the city's answer to a church-organized Santacruzan. Participated in by the different barangays in Dumaguete City, the festival started in 2007 and has become an annual summertime event of street dancing competitions, parades and fireworks. Filipino television and movie stars are invited as guests of the festival, a huge treat for the locals.
KAPAW FESTIVAL
Basay (March 17)
The Province’s fishing capital is often visited by an extraordinary press (duot) of schools of fish, resulting in overflowing catch, or kapaw. the Festival is thanksgiving celebration of this phenomenon.
KASADYAAN FESTVAL
Founder's Week, Foundation University
Dumaguete City (3rd week of December )
Established in 1949 it is the province's oldest running-festival. Kasadyaan features an elaborately costumed mardi gras parade, the longest of its kind in Negros Oriental.
KASULAD FESTIVAL
Pamplona (October 11)
Derived from kawit, sugong and salad, the principal tool used for the harvesting the coconuts and processing fruit and tree.
KINAIYAHAN
Dauin (September 7)
Celebrating the bounties of nature and highlighting Dauin’s successful campaign to conserve the natural resources and attractions of their town. Streetdancing and field presentation by all the clustered barangays of the municipality.
LANGOB
Mabinay (January 25)
Mabinay, an elevated interior municipality in the north, is also known as “Cave Town”, referring to more than a hundred caves beneath the town. The festival promotes these unique caves as tourism lures. Field presentation and street dancing components reflect geographic features of the caves and the creatures of fact and legend that inhabit it.
LIBOD-SAYAW
Bindoy (Last weekend of April)
Libod means “to make the rounds” while sayaw is vernacular for dance. Libod Sayaw refers to the street dancing around the town center, an original moving pageantry with choreography based on Philippine folk dances. The pristine beauty of the shallow Mantalip Reef is now the subject of the libod-sayaw, a mardi gras celebration during the feast of the town patron saint Vincent Ferrer.
MASULOG FESTIVAL
Brgy. Maslog, Sibulan (3rd Sunday of January)
Streedance and showdown presentations recount the legend of the great floods (sulog) that periodically laid waste to the negligent old village. The natives sought the intercession of the Santo Niño, took better care of their natural resources, and their croplands’ fertility was restored.
PASALAMAT DE TAYASAN FESTIVAL
Tayasan (June 13)
Thanksgiving for the bounties of land and sea, enlivened by streetdance and field presentation
PASAYAW FESTIVAL
Canlaon City (March 19)
A combined word of “Pasalamat Pinaagi sa Sayaw” (a thanksgiving through dance), the festival blends history, socio-cultural materials and religious traditions with the legend of the ill-fated lovers Kan and Laon to depict triumph over death and violence.
PINASKUHAN PAROL & SAYAWIT FESTIVAL
Dumaguete City, (December)
Chirstmas lantern and choral competitions participated in by the 25 local government units of Negros Oriental
SANDUROT FESTIVAL
Dumaguete City (2nd week of November, movable)
A beachfront ceremony welcomes decorated seacrafts disembarking representatives of the various races that came to enrich the multi-cultural character of Dumaguete. Streetdance and field presentations celebrate the fellowship (pakig-sandurot).
SINULOG SA TANJAY FESTIVAL
Tanjay City, (June 24)
Street dancing with mock battles between Moros and Christians followed by reconciliation through the intercession of the patron Señor Santiago, held on July 24 on the eve of the patron’s feast. This is an old tradition that begun with old men engaged in swordplay and dancing from house to house.
SILLIMAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDER’S WEEK
Dumaguete City (August 25)
The oldest Protestant university in the Philippines, Silliman was founded on august 28, 1901 by Dr. David S. Hibbard.
The weeklong activities include pageants and exhibits, booths are put up and reunions are held to mark the establishment of the first Protestant university in the country which was founded in 1901.
SIPONG FESTIVAL
Bais City (September 7)
A spectacular thanksgiving for the fruits of labor in the hot fields and the cold sea, by the natives of a city renowned as the cradle of the Province’s sugar industry and as home of dolphins and siganids (danggit).
ST. PAUL COLLEGE DUMAGUETE FOUNDER’S WEEK, Dumaguete City (October 24-29)
Founded October 29, 1904, SPUD is the first institution in the Philippines established by the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres. Mass, demonstrations, parade, and literary musical contests mark the celebration of the establishment.
TAG-ILIS FESTIVAL
Santa Catalina (April 22)
A colorful depiction of the barter and trade (tag-ilis) activities of old, enlivened by fellowship and merrymaking, set against the town’s sunny sugarcane fields.
TAWO-TAWO FESTIVAL
Bayawan City (December 21)
It is the highlight of the Charter Day celebration inspired by the tawo tawo (scarecrow) that guards the farms from crop-eating birds. Papier mache scarecrows and revelers march down the streets portraying the important role of the tawo tawo in attaining a bountiful harvest.
YAGYAG FESTIVAL
Sibulan, Negros Oriental (Last Sunday of April)
Yagyag is the vernacular for spawning, to lay eggs or spread, propagate and grow. The process refers in particular to the crabs and other marine creatures which gather during the months of October to December in Sapa, one of two springs found in Barangay Cangmating of Sibulan. The festival is a showcase of local arts and culture, fashion and unity. It features mardi gras-type streetdancing and related events.
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Scarecrows and revelers at the
Tawo-tawo in Bayawan City
Summer celebrations at the
Yagyag in Sibulan every April
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